Andrea Di MaioOne comment that I got a lot when I present on or discuss the role of social media in government or open government is how this helps disadvantaged communities that have little or no access to the Internet.
Unlike some might think, this problem is not confined to developing countries, although its scale there is generally larger. In any jurisdiction there are people who have no or very little access or lack the ability or skills to use online information and services. One approach that many governments have been following since the dawn of e-government is to deploy infrastructure to close the gap as much as possible. A complementary and sometimes alternative approach has been to leverage somebody else’s reach in those disadvantaged communities, either through kiosks located in places where people would gather, or by enabling other service providers (such as post offices or even shops) to deliver government services.
The same applies to government 2.0. Social networks can play a key role in connecting individuals and organizations that, in turn, touch people in need. Be they citizens in a township, or an elderly citizen with cognitive impairments, the crux of the matter is how the people who are closest to them (a voluntary group, a relative) can be more effective at helping them.
So let’s hope that the concept of “open government” will broaden enough to get to them who can’t even spell what “mashup” means.
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3 Chad Bockius December 15, 2009 at 2:14 pm
I couldn’t agree more. I’ve had the pleasure of serving on the Bee Cave City Council for almost 4 years. As someone that has always been in high tech I was amazed at how difficult it was to stay in touch with what was going on for the average citizen. For Bee Cave, and most cities, you have to actually attend the meetings to get the data. Unfortunately, not everyone has 6 hours to sit at City Hall on a Tuesday night. But that doesn’t mean they don’t want to be connected to what is going on in their town.
While social networks may not be the end-all-be-all answer it will dramatically change how cities connect with their citizens. It will also change how quickly information flows from citizens to the city and vice versa. We always talk about customer service at Bee Cave. We have a high bar but I know we can still do better. We need to start adopting tools like Facebook and Twitter to help share information in a way that our citizens want.
Of course, cities need to comply with state and federal laws around information access such as the Public Information Act. Part of that means archiving posts and of course being able to produce the information on demand. Here is one approach to how you can enable cities to turn on social while still being compliant with these regulations.